


Learning to Breathe

by Northern_Lady



Category: Captain America (Movies), Deadpool - All Media Types, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Abuse, Belonging, Family, Learning confidence, Mentor/Protégé, Mutant Powers, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Recovery, Rescue, Torture, Training, friendships, maybe a little cliche
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-07-13 16:26:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16021637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northern_Lady/pseuds/Northern_Lady
Summary: Peter Parker helps a teen mutant girl escape from Essex House of Mutant Rehabilitation. Even with his help, she needs more rehabilitation than he can give. Peter seeks the aid of Tony Stark to help with his new friend.





	1. Chapter 1

Peter Parker sat perched atop a city building in the middle of the night. It was a place he often found himself, on top of some New York city skyscraper waiting for his chance to be the friendly neighborhood spiderman. Sometimes he would follow the sounds of sirens or screams. The noises of a fight were usually easy to pick out and so he sat listening for anything of those. Instead, he heard someone crying. People cried all the time, it wasn’t something he could necessarily help with. Not if it was someone crying about their family member in the hospital or their dog got hit by a car or they got dumped by a boyfriend. There was nothing he could do about it, at least that’s what Peter told himself. He stayed where he was, waiting for a crisis that he actually could assist with. Then the sounds came closer to him. 

Down below him, Peter could see a teenage girl make her way through the alley. She had red hair, wore jeans, a stripped t-shirt, and denim jacket, boots, and shouldered a large khaki backpack. She was most definitely crying and in a hurry. From his vantage point Peter could see four men dressed in white were tailing her. She kept looking back and caught a glimpse of them. The girl dove behind a dumpster. 

“Aileen?” One of the men called out, shining a flashlight into all corners of the alley. “We know you’re here. Come on back the school. You have a purpose there. You shouldn’t be out here.” 

Aileen attempted to curl herself up even smaller behind the dumpster. Her hands were frantically working at something around her neck. A collar maybe? Whatever it was she was trying to get it off. The flashlight shined into the space behind the dumpster. 

“Found you,” one of the men in white said. Aileen scurried to her feet and tried to make a run for it. Another of the men in white caught her around the waist and threw her to the ground rather violently. She gasped as she hit the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of her. 

Peter shot out a web and swung down the side of the building. He kicked one of the men in white out of the way as he landed next to Aileen where she lay on the ground. 

“Okay… hi guys. So, someone wanna tell me what’s going on here?” Peter said, still a little nervous about this whole vigilante thing especially in cases when he had no idea what was going on. 

Aileen got to her feet and took a defensive stance somewhere behind him. “I’m running away and these fellows are trying to stop me,” she said, her accent probably Scottish. 

“Get out of the way kid,” The man Peter had kicked was on his feet again. “We work at her school, a boarding school, and we’re responsible to get her safely back there.” 

“Safely?” Aileen sobbed the word. “There is nothing safe about that place!” 

Peter still didn’t know exactly what was going on but he knew enough to know he believed her. These guys were not safe. One of them took a step closer to him and Peter shot him with webbing, tying him up where he stood. 

“You’re making a mistake,” one of the men said. “She is dangerous. She needs to be back at school for her sake and for everyone else’s.”

Peter glanced back at the girl he only knew as Aileen. She didn’t look dangerous. She looked scared and angry but mostly scared. People weren’t always what they seemed though. What if they were right about her? What if helping her unleashed something terrible on the city? Peter wished Mr Stark were there to tell him what to do next. 

“Dangerous how?” he asked. 

“I’m not dangerous,” Aileen said, there were tears on her face and he could hear the fear in her tone. “Essex House for Mutant Rehabilitation isn’t even a school. It’s a place to torture people who are different. Orphaned mutants just because they are different. I’m not going back. I can’t. You’ll have to kill me first.” 

“You’re a mutant?” Peter asked her, momentarily fascinated by the idea. “I’ve never met a mutant before. This is so awesome!” 

Ailleen started to nod, to confirm that she was a mutant when one of the men spoke up again. “There’s nothing awesome about mutation. People like her are an abomination.” 

“She’s not…” Peter began to say but realized right away that people like these guys were too bigoted to ever care what he had to say about mutant equality. At least now he had picked a side. He didn’t need Tony Stark to help him with this one after all. He turned to Aileen. “You don’t have to go back there.” 

It was a simple matter to tie up the other three guys with webbing and stick them to the side of the building. Impulsively, Peter put an arm around Aileen, shot out a web and swung them away to the top of another building so the men from the school wouldn’t know where to find her once they did get themselves free. He stopped on top of a building several blocks away and when their feet touched down, Aileen was in no hurry to let go of him. 

For a brief moment Peter just stood there with his arms around this pretty green eyed girl who was looking up at him like he was some sort of hero and he found that he didn’t want to let go. Then the moment passed and it became awkward. 

“I uh…” Peter took a step back and let her go. This was supposed to be the part where he made an escape and left her to live her life, except she wasn’t like the other people he had helped. Aileen was an orphan. She couldn’t just go home and go to bed now that the robbery or mugging was over, like everyone else had. She had no place to go. “So your name is Aileen?” 

She nodded. “Aileen Wallace. I was born in Scotland in case you couldn’t tell...but after my parents died those men in white came looking for me and I ended up here….do you have a name?” 

“Well, it isn’t actually Spiderman.” 

“But you can’t tell me what it is,” she said, disappointed. 

“I can’t,” Peter said, really wishing that he could. 

“Can you help me get this off?” she reached up and pulled at the collar around her neck. 

“That I can do,” Peter stepped closer to her again and reached around her to get a grip on the place where the collar seemed to clasp together. It took a good amount of effort but on his third try he did break it and let the device fall to the ground. 

Ailleen breathed a sigh of relief and she reached up and touched her neck. The skin on her neck was covered in red bleeding dots. There were scars too where other dots had healed. “Thank you,” she said, shaken but more relieved than anyone else he had helped before her. 

“It was no problem. So now that that thing is off, you can use your powers? What can you do?” Peter knew he should leave her now but he could hardly contain his excitement at having met someone else with unusual abilities. 

She looked up at him warily. “It doesn’t scare you that I’m a mutant?” 

He shrugged. “I’m a Spiderman…” 

“Right...well I have a very limited healing factor. I can heal from a broken bone in a week, not six weeks like most people. And I have powers over water.” 

“Like the elves in Lord of the Rings?” Peter asked excitedly. 

She smiled a little at his words. “Almost exactly like that.” 

God. She had a pretty smile. The last thing he wanted to do was go home and leave her to sleep out on the streets. “You know, there’s another school for mutants?” he said, remembering something Happy had once mentioned. “It’s in upstate New York. They don’t torture kids there.” 

Aileen was emphatically shaking her head no. “I’m not going to any other schools. No one anywhere needs to know I’m a mutant. It’s not safe to be anything but human.” 

“I guess that makes sense. You’ll need a place to stay though...you can’t just sleep on the street…” he mused. 

“Do you have a better idea?” 

“I stay with my Aunt. I don’t know if she’d…” 

“No, I understand. You’re not in a position to help me any further. It’s alright. I am more than grateful for everything you’ve already done. Really. “ Aileen said. 

Peter took a few steps back. He needed to make his exit. He needed to leave now. She had mutant powers and with her control collar off she would be okay. She could take care of herself. 

“If you’re gonna pretend to be human, how will you defend yourself?” he asked. 

She shrugged, “Maybe I won’t. Getting mugged or raped is still better than being found out and sent back to Essex.” 

“I can’t let that happen to you,” Peter blurted out the words without thinking. 

Aileen looked touched, then confused. “I don’t have much choice. I know how to hide though. I’ll be okay.” 

“I could ask Mr Stark if he knows a place you could stay,” Peter offered. 

“Tony Stark? Why would you trust him? He’s a white billionaire. He doesn’t know what it’s like to be different, to be a minority, to be hated. Everyone loves him. I don’t think he’d be any help to someone like me.” 

“I think he would...except he doesn’t always answer my calls and...why don’t you just come home with me? There’s a sofa in my basement. Uncle Ben installed a bathroom down there too a long time ago when he was converting the place into a den. My Aunt never goes down there. She doesn’t even have to know you’re there.” Peter sputtered. He knew it was stupid and reckless and maybe she had some sort of pheromone power that was making him act this way but he couldn’t just leave Aileen Wallace to fend for herself on the street. 

Aileen was stunned. “It will be a bit hard to keep your identity a secret if you do that.” 

“You’re not gonna tell anyone. Not after I just helped you escape that place. Am I right?” 

She nodded. “I won’t tell a soul. And even if I did, who would believe me? I’m just an orphan and an illegal immigrant. No one is going to take me seriously anyhow.” She said hopefully. 

Recklessly Peter pulled off his mask. “My name is Peter. Peter Parker.” 

**********

A week after Peter had sneaked Aileen into the basement, Aunt May started to notice something was amiss. 

“Peter what’s going on with you? Why have you been eating so much lately?” May asked him over dinner one evening. 

“I’m not...I just...I…” he stammered, knowing that the food he had been giving Aileen was probably starting to add up. 

“Look. I know teenage boys eat a lot but our grocery bill has nearly doubled. Are you extra hungry lately? Do we need to take you to a doctor to make sure you’re okay?” 

“No I...I don’t think there’s anything wrong with me...it’s just gym class...we’ve been doing all this extra stuff...running a mile...lifting weights...I get hungry...sorry I’ll try to be more careful.” 

“If you’re hungry Peter, then eat. I just want to make sure it’s not a medical issue.” May said. 

“It’s not. I’m fine. Sorry to worry you.” 

Late that night Peter made his way down to the basement with a sandwich and a few cookies. Aileen was curled up on the sofa reading. She smiled on seeing him. He loved seeing that smile. Everytime. 

“I heard what you Aunt said,” Aileen told him as she took the plate from his hand. “I can hear a lot of things down here through the heating duct. I was thinking if I could find someone who would hire me to work without looking at my immigration status, I could buy my own food.” 

“I guess that could work,” Peter took a seat next to her on the sofa. 

“Well, something has to. I don’t want her to kick me out. For the first time since I was seven, I actually feel safe. It’s not even this place, it’s…” her eyes met his and though she didn’t say it, he knew she was trying to say that she felt safe with him. 

Peter was tempted to kiss her. He leaned a little closer and then he panicked. How could he possibly kiss a girl like her? She would likely leave the basement and never come back if he did. He moved back to sit like he had been before. Aileen sighed and picked up her sandwich. 

“I caught that mugger on fourth street last night,” he told her. 

“You did? How long did it take you to catch him?” 

“Not long,” Peter went into great detail telling her all about his activities the previously night and she listened with interest.They had spent several evenings talking about what Spiderman was up to and she had told him about her past as well. 

Aileen had been raised in a little flat in Edinburgh by two parents who loved her. She had known she was a mutant since she was very small. Her mother had also been a mutant and even though Aileen didn’t have any manifested powers as a child, her parents had tested her for the mutant gene and warned her that someday she would have powers and that they were excited to find out what her gifts were going to be. Then at age seven there had been a terrible car crash that ended in her parents deaths. Aileen had stayed with a neighbor while waiting for an Uncle to arrive from a trip abroad and take her to live with him. Before her Uncle ever arrived, the men in white came. 

The past eight years she described as “hell.” There was no other word she could think of to explain it to Peter. She couldn’t even tell him the details. He knew enough though from reading between the lines. He knew that Essex house had tortured and humiliated her on a daily basis. She had not known a day free of pain years. He also knew that the men in white had threatened to come to her bed at night. She never explained what she meant by that, she didn’t have to. They hadn’t ever fully carried out their threats but they did sometimes touch her in unwanted ways and that had been more than enough to make her constantly wary of them. She was afraid to leave the basement room. Aileen never said so outright but every time Peter tried give her a key and encourage her to leave the house for a while she made excuses to stay. 

“If you don’t want to go out for a sandwich at the corner deli, how are you gonna go out for a job?” Peter finally asked her later that evening. 

“I don’t know,” Aileen said quickly, focusing her gaze on her hands. 

“Well, maybe I should get a job then,” he thought aloud. 

She glanced up at him. “I can’t let you do that. You’re not responsible for me. I’m supposed to be responsible for myself. And I would be if it wasn’t all so terrifying…” 

“Maybe...maybe you could work for Mr Stark. Don’t look at me like that. He owns a big company so there have to be lots of jobs. It would be safe.”

“There’s only one place that’s safe,” Aileen said. It was Aileen who initiated the kiss but Peter didn’t end it. That was the last thing he wanted. 

*********

Another week passed before Peter could convince Aileen to leave the house at all. He had found her a job online using one of his old laptop computers. She was pretty good with computers. Her school had used a very secure firewall to keep the students from getting help online but there had been computers there and she had learned enough about graphic design that she could make a little money and pay for her own food. With her first payment, Peter convinced her to leave the house and come to the grocery store and pick out her own food. 

She was very uncomfortable with being out in public. She held his hand tightly and didn’t have a word to say for the entire walk to the grocery store. He should have been annoyed but he wasn’t. Besides, he figured she just needed time. She had been through a lot and if he could convince her to come outside every week and eventually every day she would eventually adjust. 

They reached a police roadblock before they ever reached the store. A police car was parked in the street, as well as an ambulance and a crashed car. There was caution tape up and a crowd of people had gathered. Aileen got a look at the crashed car and gripped his hand even tighter. 

“We have to get out of here,” she told him. 

He could imagine that she was thinking of her parents car crash. “It won’t take them long to clean this up.” 

Aileen shook her head. “We have to go. I am losing control…” 

A nearby fire hydrant exploded just then, sending a burst of water everywhere. Further down the street another hydrant exploded. Peter could see into the window of the cafe next to them that the kitchen water pipes had burst and water was flowing everywhere. 

“Whoa. Is that you?” Peter asked. He didn’t wait for an answer. He put an arm around her shoulders and walked them back the way they had come. 

By the time they got back to Peter’s house, Aileen was sobbing uncontrollably. Aunt May was still at work so Peter took them through the front door and into the living room. 

“See, that’s why I can’t go out?” she said between her tears as Peter sat down next to her on the sofa. 

“But Aileen, you can’t just spend your whole life hidden in my basement. Maybe you can learn to control it if you practice going out more often.” he suggested. 

“I can’t…” Aileen leaned towards him and wrapped her arms around him. 

Peter hugged her in return for a long while. 

****

Dear Mr. Stark,  
I have been keep this email in my outbox for a long time. If you are reading this I probably died fighting the bad guys or got myself into enough trouble that I couldn’t get home in time to stop this email from sending automatically. If I did die, I hope it was at least a good death and not something dumb like in that old movie with the holy grail when the guy just aged really rapidly and died. 

 

Anyway, I am writing for two things. First I want to thank you for all your help so far. For getting me a suit and helping me become the Spiderman. And I want to ask for your help one last time, not for me but for my friend Aileen. I got myself into a bit of a mess when it comes to Aileen. She is an orphan and a mutant who was living at Essex House for Mutant Rehabilitation. They basically torture and abuse mutants there. I helped her run away. Since she didn’t have any place to go, I kinda let her stay in Aunt May’s basement. Aunt May doesn’t know she’s down there. 

It gets worse. Aileen has been in my basement for eight months and she is too scared to go outside. Between the torture that she endured at the school and the limited control she has over her powers, I can’t convince her that it is safe to leave the house. Aileen is a great person. I’ve never had a best friend like her but I can’t help her the way she needs. Maybe she needs therapy or a parent or something. She had an Uncle named Joe MacTaggert but we can’t find him anywhere. If I’m dead, I am pretty sure that once Aileen runs out of food, she won’t eat. She earns money online but I shop for food. Plus, someone is going to have to go down to my basement and tell her that I’m gone. Her powers will probably spin out of control when she gets the news. It could be dangerous for Aunt May and other people in the neighborhood. 

If I am gone, can you go to my house and get her out? Can you make sure she gets some help and has a safe place to go? And tell Aunt May I am sorry. 

Thanks for everything,  
-Peter


	2. Chapter 2

Tony gazed at the email with disbelief. He had been back on earth for a total of three hours. Three hours. Just long enough to see who had survived Thanos among the Avengers, and introduce Nebula to them, and take a shower. Three hours on earth and then this was thrown at him. 

“What is it?” Pepper came up alongside him, seeing the look on his face. She glanced over the email. 

“I can’t… I can’t do this. I can’t be responsible for anymore teenagers with powers. I can’t.” 

“But Tony, she was Peter’s friend. If she survived Thanos, we can’t just abandon her.” Pepper pointed out. 

“You think helping her would make up for what happened to Peter?” Tony could not disguise how upset he was about any of this. 

“No. I think this is what Peter would have wanted. He clearly cared about this girl. The last thing he would want is for you to abandon her.” 

Tony didn’t reply right away. He just stared at the screen a while longer. “I know.” He sighed and took a step away from the computer. “I am gonna go visit May Parker. I have to go there anyway and tell her… tell her about Peter.” 

Tony took a car to the Parker residence. May Parker saw him pull up and met him at the front door of her house. 

“There’s only one reason you’re here.” She said, tears forming in her eyes. “You don’t have to say it.” 

“I’m sorry,” was all he could say. 

Tony hugged her briefly while she wept and when she pulled away he let her go. “There was actually another reason I came. Peter sent me an email. Apparently he has been helping out a homeless friend. Have you heard any noises in your basement?” Tony passed her a copy of the email that he had printed off on a sheet of paper. 

May scanned over the page and then looked up at Tony, stunned. “He hid a mutant girl in my basement? Why wouldn’t he tell me about this? First the superpowers and then this…?” 

“I don’t know,” Tony shook his head. “But I gotta see your basement.” 

May wiped away her tears and led the way to a door in her house. “It’s down there.” 

“I don’t think you should come down,” Tony said. “The letter doesn’t say what her powers are but…” 

“Then aren’t you going to wear your suit?” May asked him. 

“Only if I need it,” Tony said, reaching over to pull a hanging light string switch. He turned and started down the stair while May backed away. 

The stairway was narrow and the room at the bottom was dimly lit with a single lamp next to a ratty orange sofa. There was a folding table with a couple of folding chairs in one corner. A cardboard box clothes in another corner next to a metal shelf with a few books and board games on it. The bathroom door was open and dimly lit by a light over the medicine cabinet. The whole place seemed to be empty. Tony looked around for a pile of dust. Maybe she hadn’t survived Thanos. Then he heard a spray of water coming from the bathroom. The sound was too faint to be the shower. He crossed the room towards the bathroom. By the time he reached it he could see the spray of water under the bathroom sink. He heard a faint noise to his left and realized that someone was hiding in the shower. 

“Aileen?” Was all he had time to say before the water pressure increased enough that water was exploding everywhere, out of the sink, the toilet, the shower, and the sink was broken from the wall and shot towards him, knocking him off his feet. Tony found himself on his back, a stream of water pressure holding him down. He assembled his suit and managed to get to his feet. The water didn’t stop flowing. 

“Aileen, I know you’re in there. Peter sent me. Come on out?” 

Amongst all the chaos of the water, Tony saw the shower curtain pulled back and this red haired teenage girl stepped out, fully clothed in jeans and boots and a striped t-shirt, she put out a hand and calmed the waters. 

“Are you Tony Stark?” she asked, sounding anxious. 

“Yeah. I think you know why I’m here.” 

Aileen nodded with a quivering jaw. “He’s gone isn’t he?” The water from the hole in the wall started to faintly spray behind her. 

Tony nodded again, not wanting to say it but knowing he had to. “Yeah, Peter’s gone.” 

Aileen said nothing but all around them Tony could hear the sounds of rushing water. He couldn’t tell where it was coming from but it was coming fast. He felt the ground beneath him shake. 

“We gotta go,” Tony grabbed Aileen and flew up the stairs, then grabbed May on his way past her. They got out the front door and into the air just as the house exploded with water. The pressure was so vast that the house was breaking apart. Tony landed them well across the street only to see a fire hydrant explode, then a garden hose. He opened his face mask and turned to Aileen who was sobbing uncontrollably. He put his hands on her shoulders. “You need to cut that out!” 

Aileen looked up at him, hurt and confused and angry. “What did you just say? I just lost my only friend you could at least have a little sympathy.” 

“There isn’t time for sympathy. We all lost people. It doesn’t give us the right to destroy the neighborhood. Whatever it is you’re doing here, you need to make it stop.” Tony told her. 

“I can’t just make it stop. I can’t always control it.” Aileen sobbed. 

“You’re gonna have to figure it out and figure it out now before anyone gets hurt,” Tony insisted. 

Aileen looked around the neighborhood at the water flowing everywhere at the nearly destroyed Parker House and she looked overwhelmed. 

It was May who spoke up then. “Aileen, Peter cared about you. If he believed in you then so do I. You can make this stop.” 

“I can’t. It will stop on its own if you get me away from here.” 

Tony sighed. “I’ll pay for the house May, and for a hotel until it gets fixed. It’s the least I can do.” He passed her a credit card. Then he put an arm around Aileen and flew her back to the Avengers facility. He didn’t know what else to do with her. Maybe Nat, or Bruce would know.


	3. Chapter 3

The moment that their feet touched the ground outside the Avengers complex, Aileen pulled away from Tony and she took off running. 

“Hey!” he called after her. She could at least be a little bit thankful that he had gotten her out of there and cleaned up her mess, so to speak. Instead she ran off? Where was she going anyway? “I can catch you you know?” 

Aileen didn’t stop. She just headed away from the building towards the trees. Tony sighed and flew over her head, landing in front of her, directly in her path. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked her, arms crossed. 

“Into the woods I suppose,” she said and Tony noticed for the first time that her accent was Scottish. 

“And then where? You haven’t got any food or any money and you’re not exactly far from water sources out here. Why don’t you come inside and we figure out a plan for someplace safe you can go?” 

“I had someplace safe…” Aileen sniffled and brushed away angry tears. 

“Maybe, but you can’t have had much of a social life hiding in Peter’s basement. Where ever you go next, you won’t have to hide.” 

“I’ll always have to hide,” she argued. “I’m not like you.”

“Even if that’s true, maybe I can help you be better at hiding. You’ve got a better chance if you come inside, have a meal, rest a while and we can talk things over.” Tony couldn’t let her just run off. He knew he could overpower her easily enough and drag her into the building but that really wasn’t the best solution. Pepper had been right. He didn’t like it but he knew he needed to make sure this kid was taken care of, for Peter. Now that he had set out to do this, he had to do it right. 

“I’m not stupid. I know you’re trying to convince me to stay, what I don’t know is why.” Aileen said warily. 

“For Peter. He asked me to look out for you. That’s why I brought you here. I know you don’t trust me but he did. He had to have told you that,” Tony said, pretty sure it was true. 

“He did tell me but…” Aileen glanced at the complex behind him. “I would like to believe you but Peter didn’t know what it was like… being powerless. He had no idea. He had a family who cared about him his whole life and after the spider bite, no one could overpower him. The last place I need to be is here with a bunch of Avengers. The safest place for me is hiding somewhere alone.”

As soon as Tony understood her meaning, he disassembled his suit. “There’s no reason to be afraid of me or any of the Avengers. If I wanted to hurt you, I could have dragged you inside without asking.” 

“I know,” Aileen said, “That’s my whole point.” 

“I’m pretty sure Peter could have too. What made you trust him?” 

“He helped me once.. And he was just a trustworthy person, maybe because he was trusting of other people. Most adults don’t have that...that optimism and ability to look at life the way he did. There was no reason not to trust him.” 

She was right. Parker had been full of the optimism of youth. He lacked the cynicism that most adults developed. “Okay, then for Peter’s sake, why not just try a little positive thinking and come inside for an hour? If you aren’t convinced at the end of an hour, we’ll send you on your way. I promise.” 

Aileen still looked hesitant. “Peter couldn’t stop talking about how great you were so…” she took a step towards him. 

“What do you want to eat? And please don’t tell me haggis,” Tony said. “We got almost everything in the kitchen inside. Pizza, sandwiches, salad, whatever you want, I can get it. What do the Scottish lassies eat these days anyhow?” Tony knew he was talking too much but he was determined to keep her from running off at this point. 

Aileen shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I eat the same as anyone else around here. Whatever you have is fine.” 

Tony shook his head. “No, that accent of yours is thick enough that you had to have spent a long time in Scotland. What was your favorite food before you came here?” 

Her eyes welled up with tears at the question. “My Mum used to make scones every Saturday morning...blaeberry scones...I had forgotten about that.”

“Come on inside. I’ll send one of my people to a bakery and get you all the scones you could eat.” 

Aileen followed Tony across the grass to the large double doors of the complex. She went into the lobby with him then to the elevator which they took to the third floor. The elevator opened into a common room with sofas and table. Pepper was there waiting and she made the introductions to the other Avengers while Tony placed a call for take-out. Then he called to check that May Parker had gotten to safety. By the time he was finished, Aileen was sitting at a table with Pepper and Bruce. 

“Food is on the way,” Tony told her, joining them. He wanted to ask her about her Uncle. She needed a place to go as soon as possible but he figured he had better not drill her with questions. “I got scones and also fish and chips because the place said that’s what they eat across the pond.” 

“I haven’t had fish and chips since I was eight,” Aileen said with a small smile. 

Good, at least he was doing something right if he got a smile out of her. “I take it that’s when you came to the US, when you were eight?” 

She nodded, “I was eight but I didn’t come willingly. Men from Essex House came and brought me to New York after my parents died.” 

“Essex House is gone now you know? There was a fire…” Tony told her. 

“I didn’t know that,” Aileen was surprised then relieved. “So they won’t be looking for me anymore.” 

“They won’t but that doesn’t mean you should run off on your own,” Pepper spoke up. 

Tony let the two of them just talk and said nothing more as Pepper asked about Aileen’s Uncle and her background. She told Pepper that she had only met her Uncle Joe twice when she was a little kid. He had been her mom’s brother and he wasn’t at the or phone number that he used to have and didn’t seem to be on social media. Peter had even tried calling one of Uncle Joe’s neighbors to see if he could find out where the man had moved to but they had been no help. If Joe still existed, she had no idea how to find him or if he would even want to take her in. 

“If we can’t find him, there’s always Xavier’s School for Mutants,” Tony spoke up for the first time in a while. 

“I can’t go there,” Aileen immediately responded. 

“Look, if there’s a tuition price, I’ll pay it,” he offered. “Never been there, but I’ve heard good things about the place.” 

“People heard good things about Essex House too,” she argued. “There’s only one reason to gather a bunch of mutant kids into one place and it isn’t to help them. No one helps mutants.” 

Tony shook his head. “What about Peter? He did.” 

Aileen looked down at her feet. “He did, but he kept trying to make me go out. He never understood…” 

“I think he did understand,” Tony said as the food arrived. He got up to pay the driver and came back with several take out boxes. 

Aileen didn’t contribute anything else to the conversation for several minutes. She ate quickly, like a person who was very hungry. Pepper watched her with concern as she hurriedly ate a third scone. 

“When was the last time you had decent meal?” Tony asked her. He hadn’t seen any microwave in that basement or refrigerator. Whatever Peter had been giving her to eat couldn’t have been a balanced healthy diet. 

“Um...Peter brought me breakfast from the house of pancakes two weeks ago. Besides that it has been just crackers and almonds for a few days now….well, actually I ran out of those three days back…” 

“You haven’t eaten in three days?” Pepper asked with concern and then reached for the box containing the fish and chips and passed it to Aileen. 

“Well, I kinda did go upstairs while May was at work and make a peanut butter sandwich but only once…” Aileen admitted, a little ashamed of herself. 

“I think May would have given you the sandwich if you’d asked,” Tony said, knowing it to be true. 

“I’m gonna pay her back someday,” Aileen said as she opened the box of fish and chips. 

Tony didn’t say anything to that at first. Just this brief meeting with this half starved kid made it clear enough that she didn’t have the means to ever pay May Parker back. Not yet. Not as she was. She didn’t have the confidence or skills to survive on her own and if she went out into the world and met a crisis her powers might slip from her control and hurt a lot people. He had told her he would let her leave if she didn’t want to stay but he realized just then that he couldn’t just let her walk away. He would have to convince her to go to Xavier’s. They knew how to teach mutants to control their powers. It would be the best place for her. “If you want to pay her back, don’t you think you’re gonna need an education?” 

“I can get that online at the public library,” she shrugged. 

“The internet’s gonna teach you how to control your powers?” 

“Sometimes I can control them...but mostly I’ll just stay away from people…” 

“That’s really what you want? A life of solitude where you struggle to earn enough money to eat? Because you can’t very well be employed or educated if you’re trying to keep people distant...” Tony asked her pointedly. 

Aileen’s eyes filled with tears but she refused to meet his gaze, she kept her eyes focused on the food in front of her. 

“I don’t think any of that is actually what you want,” he continued. 

“Then what do I want?” she asked bitterly. “If you know so much about me, what do I want?” 

Tony knew she probably wanted a family and safety and security but he wasn’t going to patronize her by saying so out loud. Her family was gone. He couldn’t offer her another one. As for safety and security, he could send her to Xavier’s School which would be a safe place but if she didn’t believe that to be the truth, it would be pointless. She wasn’t ready for the trust aspect of safety. 

“You don’t want to be afraid anymore,” he finally said. 

Aileen looked up at him. Meeting his gaze with tears on her face. “Fear is part of life. I accepted that a long time ago.” 

Tony shook his head. “I don’t think you did. And I don’t think you should have to. It is possible for you to exist somewhere that you don’t have to worry about where your next meal is coming from or about accidentally hurting anyone. There are safe places.” 

“You mean places like that mutant school?” Aileen was pushing back her chair and getting to her feet. “Thanks for the meal Mr. Stark. I really need to go now.” 

She was leaving and he had failed to convince her of anything. Aileen got as far as the doorway before he called out to her. There was only one thing left he could try. “Aileen wait?” 

She stopped short but did not turn to face him. Tony got up and went to where she stood. “Forget the mutant school. What if you stayed here, with the Avengers?” 

Her eyes widened, full of questions. 

“You can’t hurt any of us,” he continued. “Not really. We all have powers to defend ourselves from any accidents you might have. We’ll try to find your Uncle but if we don’t find him you can stay anyway. They’ll always be enough to eat and no one here is gonna hurt you. I think you know that.” 

Aileen turned to face him and glanced around the room at the other Avengers who had gathered at several other tables in the room for their own lunch. She looked a little overwhelmed. “Most of you could overpower me…” she said a little warily. “How do I know that…?”: her question remained unfinished as she glanced up at Tony. 

“Peter trusted us. You have to decide if you will too. If you leave though, it will be even harder to decide who to trust out there. All of them will be strangers. At least with us you’ve got some clues that we’re the good guys.” 

Aileen thought over his words for a moment before she nodded. “Okay, I’ll stay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the next chapter, training begins.


	4. Chapter 4

Aileen found herself standing in the center of the huge training room at the Avengers Complex. Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov, Nebula, and Tony Stark stood on four sides of her. She had known them for a week now. Long enough to know that they weren’t dangerous but still not long enough to bite back her terror at being surrounded in a mock fight like this. No one had ever asked her to use her powers on purpose. This was the first time she had ever tried. 

“Okay, maybe just think about water,” Tony suggested. There was a large plastic tank of water in the room for this very exercise. 

Aileen took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and tried to focus her thoughts on water. She could feel the tank of water to her right. She could feel the the weight of it as if were in her hands. The tank of water was so small compared to what was beneath them. Far below the ground was a natural water vein and it was huge. She could sense the vibrations in all its movements. Thousands of gallons of pressure just flowing. All that water was beautiful and it could be hers to command. Maybe she could pull that water upwards and....Aileen’s eyes snapped open. 

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” she said worriedly. 

“You’re doing just fine,” Natasha said. “Don’t give up yet.” 

“I can feel the water all around me,” Aileen continued. “Not just in the tank but underground and in the clouds too. I don’t know where I’ll be taking water from.” 

“Don’t worry about that right now,” Steve said. “Just worry about hitting the target.” 

“You don’t understand,” she all but mumbled. “There’s so much out there and I don’t know how much of it I can actually control.” 

“You’ll never know if you don’t try,” Steve said. 

***

A knock sounded at the door to Aileen’s bedroom. It was sparsely decorated since she hadn’t even been there long. Pepper had gotten her some clothes. The woman had actually enjoyed shopping for and with Aileen. Going shopping with anyone was a new experience for Aileen. She hadn’t known what to make of it. On their trip Pepper had offered to buy her some posters for her room, posters of her heroes. Aileen had chosen just one, Spiderman, but she hadn’t hung it up on the wall yet. She couldn’t. 

Aileen opened the door to her room and found Tony Stark standing there. His hair was still wet. 

“We need to talk,” he said. 

Aileen opened the door further and went back to sit on her bed. Tony entered and sat down on the other end. 

“I’m sorry,” she said sadly. “Is this the part where you tell me I can’t stay?” 

“No,” Tony shook his head. “This is the part where I apologize to you.” 

“For what?” 

“For pushing you too hard. I made some calls. I talked to this Charles Xavier fellow,” Tony began. 

Aileen was off the bed and on her feet as soon as she heard the name Xavier. She wasn’t going to attend any mutant schools. Not ever. 

Tony raised a hand to calm her. “Don’t worry. I only asked him for a little advice. I’m not sending you to his school.”

She forced herself to sit back down on the bed. “What did he tell you?” 

“Only that you needed more time. He told me that he doesn’t train mutants to use their powers until after they have adjusted to life at the school. He said stability is the best kind of training.” 

“I don’t know anything about stability,” she said, unsure what he was even getting at. 

“You will. You’re gonna stay here a while and make some friends and in six months or a year when we try training again, it might not tear apart any buildings or break any collar bones.” 

“It broke Steve’s collarbone?” Aileen gasped. 

“He’s fine. He heals pretty quickly. My point was, just relax and don’t worry about training for now. Only thing to worry about right now is finishing high school. How would you feel about attending Xavier’s School during the day and coming back here at night? The place is only forty minutes away. A ride could be arranged.” 

“I don’t have to live there?” 

“No. Pepper doesn’t want you to. She wants you here. She’s gotten kind of attached to having someone to go shopping with.” He told her, not mentioning that he didn’t really want her gone either. He would worry too much if she were. 

Aileen sat there thinking over his words for a moment. The idea of attending a school for mutants was wholly terrifying. With that many mutants in one place they had to have methods for controlling them. What would it be? Control collars? Did they have a machine for rehabilitation. All she could think about, all she could remember, was the pain in her neck as it convulsed through her whole body and those horrible words, Blessed are the wicked who are healed by my hand. 

Tony’s hand on hers drew her out of her horror-struck thoughts. She gasped when she saw that a glass of water sitting on her dresser had exploded. 

“Hey…” Tony said gently. “What just happened there? You zoned out like you did earlier today when you were training.” 

“I keep thinking about the Headmaster…” Aileen said and trailed off. 

“What about him?” Tony asked. “Peter said in his letter that there was abuse at that school but I’m starting to think it was something worse than slapping kids with a ruler.” 

“Yes, it was much worse,” Aileen did not elaborate. 

Tony waited for half a minute for her to continue. “If you decide you want to talk about it any of us would listen.” He started to get up to leave the room and she spoke again. 

“Blessed are the wicked who are healed by my hand,” she said in a near whisper. 

“What was that?” 

“That’s what the headmaster used to say every day, over and over. Blessed are the wicked who are healed by my hand. He made us recite it at whoever’s turn it was for the chair. Every time I try to use my powers, I think about that. Especially after what happened today. Maybe he was right all along. Maybe I am evil. Maybe all mutants are evil and I should have let him use his chair and heal me,” Aileen rubbed at the dot scars on her neck as she spoke. 

“Those marks on your neck aren’t part of your mutation are they?” he asked as if realizing it for the first time. 

“No, they are from the chair. It was a machine he made to fix us. Every day we were strapped in by turns and made to recite...if we screamed too much he’d just make us stay longer. Most of us learned not to make much noise no matter how much it hurt.” 

Tony looked a little horrified at what she was telling him. “Every day?” 

Aileen sniffled and nodded. “Yes.” 

Tony sat back down on the bed. “Then there’s something you should know. The Avengers...maybe we couldn’t defeat Thanos. We failed at that. But we did beat Ultron and countless other threats. Steve beat Red Skull and Thor beat lots of Asgardian monsters… my point is, a guy like your headmaster wouldn’t be so hard for us. No one is gonna hurt you like that again, not if we have any say in it.” 

Tony left her with those words and after he left Aileen slid further back on her bed with her back against the headboard. She pulled up her knees so she could rest her chin on them and stayed there wondering if maybe Peter had been right about Tony Stark after all?


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tony can be a little harsh sometimes but he doesn't always mean to be.

It was a typical evening after a long day of work. The Avengers had gathered in the big common living room at their complex. Nat and Bruce sat on the sofa side by side and weren’t even pretending they weren’t a couple anymore. Nebula sat on the floor sharpening various weapons while the movie played. Steve sat in a recliner watching a movie and Tony was watching from one of the other sofas, a tablet in hand as he worked on a project while half watching the movie. Pepper had gone to the city for a few days for a Stark Industries project. 

The hour had grown late as they were nearing the end of the third film in their Lord of The Rings marathon and Aileen wandered into the room carrying a book. She took a seat on the other end of the sofa with Tony. In the four months she had lived with them she had kept them distant. She did her schoolwork online and chatted with them all at mealtimes about movies and music or books. She didn’t talk about her past often and she didn’t usually come and watch TV with them in the evenings. Tony wondered what had brought her here tonight. She pulled her feet up onto the sofa, set the book aside, and hugged her knees. 

“You doing okay, kid?” Tony asked her. Something was wrong. 

“It’s 12:05, August tenth,” she said, clearly very sad about this for some reason. 

“And…?” Tony wasn’t sure what she was getting at. 

“It’s Peter’s birthday...or it would have been…” 

“How did I not know that?” Tony mused aloud. 

Aileen sniffled and brushed away some unwanted tears. Tony hadn’t seen her cry at all since the first week she had been there. She had been quiet and kind and mostly very boring but that didn’t mean that he didn’t like her or that he wanted to see her crying now. 

“Did you ever put that poster up in your room?” He asked her. “Maybe it would be a good day to do that.”

“I can’t. I can’t even open it.” 

“We’ll help you, or I’ll help you. Since it looks like half of us are asleep already,” Tony said. He got up and followed her to her room. She switched on the light and picked up the poster from where it still sat rolled up in the corner. Tony took it from her and removed the clear plastic wrapping. He unrolled it and did his best to keep his emotions in check as he looked at the picture of Peter in the costume he had made. 

Aileen watched him intently as she passed him a thumbtack to hang the poster. By the time he had gotten all four tacks in, he was too upset to speak without getting emotional. 

“You did care about him didn’t you?” Aileen asked. 

“Yeah,” was all he could say, trying to pretend his eye was itching and not moist was proving difficult. “There’s a memorial site. When it’s daylight I’ll take you to go visit it. Maybe you’d better go get some sleep for now.” 

“Mr. Stark?” she called after him just as he went out the door. “If I learn to control my powers do I get a suit?” 

“Sure, if that’s what you want. There’s no hurry.” 

Tony could hardly sleep when he went to bed that night. 

***

Aileen hoped that the large open field would be a safe place for practice. As Steve Rogers had told her months earlier, she would never know if she didn’t try. At first she made an effort to pull water from the clouds in the sky. That seemed safer than pulling water from the earth beneath her. After twenty minutes of trying she had gotten nowhere. Maybe she had to be scared. Maybe she had to focus on her fear. Aileen closed her eyes again and remembered the words, blessed are the wicked who are healed by my hand. Nothing. Hours passed, exhaustion set in and Aileen still could not make her powers work. It started raining and she had no idea if it was real rain or something she had caused. She all but collapsed to the ground and let the rain fall along with her tears of frustration. 

“It’s three in the morning, what are you doing out here?” Tony said. She hadn’t even heard him approach. 

“Training,” she said, worn out with all her efforts. 

He sighed. “You should have told someone where you were. I’ve been looking for hours Is this where you’ve been going all week?” 

“I lost track of time. I’m sorry.” 

“I thought you didn’t want to train anyway. At least you didn’t seem to want to the last time we tried. What changed?’ 

She got to her feet and turned to face him. “I decided I wanted to learn to be useful, to get a suit and do something in the world,” Aileen shrugged. It was half true. 

Tony regarded her skeptically. “A few months ago you were scared to even try to use your powers, now you want be a hero? No one changes that quickly, what gives?” 

“Maybe it’s just that Peter inspired me…”she tried telling him. 

“Peter inspired all of us. What are you not telling me?” he asked her and he almost sounded a little angry. 

Aileen didn’t like it when he sounded angry. She took a step back. “I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true,” she protested. 

“I know. This all started last week on Peter’s birthday. Something changed but I’m not convinced that you want to be an Avenger. If you told me you wanted to write a Pulitzer winning novel, I would believe it. If you told me you wanted to be a brain surgeon I would believe that too...but you’re not ready to be an Avenger and I want to know why you think you should be one?” 

Aileen bit back her worry at being asked this question. She couldn’t lie to him but she couldn’t tell him the truth either. It was too difficult. “I don’t…” she sobbed. “I know I’m too much a coward to be an Avenger. Every little thing scares me and I have no control over my powers. I don’t belong here and I never did!” Aileen was ready to run but Tony saw what she meant to do and caught her arm before she could go. 

“I didn’t say never. I said, not yet. The fact is, you and I both know that you’d be much happier with some other career choice, am I right?” 

“Yes,” Aileen made herself admit it aloud. 

“Then what the hell are you doing out here?” 

Aileen looked down at her feet and let the tears drip to the ground. It was raining so much at that point that it didn’t matter anyway. She didn’t know how to answer his question. She didn’t know how to tell him that she just wanted him to care about her like he had Peter. If learning to control her powers and working to fight crime is what it took to earn that, she was more than willing to give it a try. 

Tony shook his head, seeing that he wasn’t gonna get an answer. “Maybe we should get inside. It’s late.” 

Aileen followed him back to the complex without a word.


	6. Chapter 6

It took three nights of sneaking out to practice before Aileen was able to get enough handle on her powers to be able to draw her water from a specific source. She still could not hit her target with a blast of water yet, at least not always, but the fact that she could take the water from wherever she wanted was a huge accomplishment. She returned the the complex that morning with a broad smile on her face. Tony Stark and Pepper met her at the front door. 

“If you’re determined to go through with this training thing you might as well do it right,” he said, and she couldn’t tell if it was annoyance in his tone or not. “Meet us in the training room after lunch.” 

“Did you have any luck?” Pepper asked her as they walked back towards the apartment side of the building. 

“A little,” Aileen admitted with a small smile. 

“I gotta...I gotta go do a thing,” Tony moved on ahead of them. 

“Don’t worry about him being so grouchy about this,” Pepper said. “He’s just really worried that something will happen to you. He wants you to do something safer with your life.” 

“He was worried about me?” Aileen said. 

“He was and he is. Truth be told so am I. That doesn’t mean I don’t support you if this is what you really want,” Pepper said genuinely. 

Aileen hung her head not knowing what to say. 

“It is what you want, right?” The older woman added. 

“I don’t know…” 

“Look, if you just want to learn how to defend yourself you could do that without being an Avenger.” 

“I do want to defend myself or least have enough control of my powers that I get to decide what happens to the water around me in a crisis...I want that...someday…”

“And yet you suddenly seem like you’re in a hurry to learn all that right now. It doesn’t have to be learned in one day. We’re worried about what is going on with you. Are you in some sort of danger you haven’t told us about?” 

“No,” Aileen replied, deflated. “There’s no danger...I just…” 

“Tony said you asked him if you could get a suit. If you don’t want to be an Avenger, why did you ask for that?” 

Aileen bit her lip and stopped walking, feeling too emotional to go on. She knew the answer to Pepper’s question and she couldn’t bring herself to say it. Saying what she wanted out loud was too much of a risk. Tony and Pepper were the closest thing she had to parents but they weren’t her parents and as far as she knew they were still looking for her Uncle Joe. They had no interest in adopting a daughter of any sort. How could she possibly tell them how she felt and what she wanted? A nearby bathroom in the hallway where they had stopped burst a water pipe. 

“I’m sorry,” Aileen sobbed, struggling to get a hold of herself and stop the flow of water. 

“Honey, you don’t have to be sorry. It’s just a water pipe. It can be fixed. Why don’t you tell me what is going on so we can fix that too?” 

Aileen shook her head, unwilling and unable to say what needed to be said. 

“This all started on Peter’s birthday. Why?”

“Mr. Stark was helping me hang up the poster of Peter...and he was so sad...I think he almost cried...and..and I asked him if I could get a suit someday. It was a stupid thing to do. I should have never asked that. I don’t even want to be an Avenger…” the words were spilling out of her. 

“Oh..oh my god…” Pepper gasped as the realization hit her. “You don’t have to train to be a superhero to get Tony to care about you. I promise you, he already does. And so do I.” 

“Really?” Aileen unclenched her hands at her sides that she hadn’t even realized she had balled into fists. 

Pepper stepped closer and gave her a hug. “Yes, really.” 

***

That afternoon Tony met her at the door of the training room. 

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” he told her. 

“You talked to Pepper?” Aileen asked, uncomfortable with the idea that she may have told Tony everything. 

“I talk to Pepper everyday but if you’re talking about something in particular you’ll have to enlighten me.” 

So maybe Pepper hadn’t told him. “It doesn’t matter. I still need to do this. No more bursting water pipes on accident.” 

“I think there might be a simpler way to prevent that,” Tony said. “Seems to me Xavier was right about the connection between stability and control of your powers. For stability, you need a family.” 

“Are you trying to tell me that you found my Uncle?” she asked him worriedly. 

“The truth is, we found him months ago. We talked to his ex-wife Moira and found out that he is an abusive jerk. He was willing to take you but we couldn’t send you there, not into an abusive situation like that. Pepper and I wanted to adopt you but we can’t legally do it with your Uncle in the picture so...all we can do is ask you to stay with us. One of the apartments on the fourth floor has two bedrooms and we’re ready to move in there this weekend if you are?” 

Aileen couldn’t speak. She crossed the distance between them and threw her arms around Tony. 

“I take it that’s a yes?” Tony said as he hugged her in return. 

Across the room the plastic water tank split open and water gushed out all over the floor. Aileen pulled away from Tony, a huge smile on her face. “I didn’t know it would do that. I thought I only lost control when I was scared or angry.” 

“Wanna try helping them clean that up?” Tony asked, as they watched Nat and Steve try to scoop up pails of water and pour them out an open window. 

“I’ve never been able to hit a target before,” Aileen said, “But I feel like maybe this time I could do it.” 

“Give it a try,” Tony said. “I’m pretty sure you can do it, but it’s okay with me if you can’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It ends here. I had fun writing this story even though it was sappy and very little romance, I had fun writing it. I hope a few of you enjoy reading it.

**Author's Note:**

> In the next chapter, Tony Stark gets to mentor a new teenager.


End file.
